The Bow of Destiny (The Bow of Hart Saga #1)

If you love Fantasy stories about Rangers, then this is the book for you! Theres plenty of camping, tracking, hiking, and evading pursuers in the woods. Throughout the first half of the book, you can practically smell the wood-smoke, feel the dew on your pillow, hear the footsteps on pine needles. Its cool when the heroes traveling party uses scouts to stalk ahead, looking for trouble, or where hunting parties take hours or days to track each other down before a vicious fight.

And theres plenty of troubles to be found here. Athson (the Archer hero) and his band of supernatural allies (sorceress, dwarves, and other magical beings) face off against an assortment of strange creatures. Also a variety of challenging landscapes, some of which are cursed. Theres even some classic dungeon crawling in the Troll-Neath, which is a phrase I love! I especially liked one action scene involving a bridge that reminded me of Indiana Jones, or the famous Balrog scene in LOTR. My only issue was trying to differentiate between the types of troll hordes that Athson fights. I have fond memories of the terms Bugbear, Kobold, Goblin, and Hobgoblin, but I have a hard time picturing what each one of these creatures would look like. On the other hand, some of the other fiends and spells that Athson faces are very chillingly described.

The author writes in a masterful, fluid style, and the pages just roll by. At the same time, I didnt find myself annoyed or bored by any of the characters, which can be quite a feat (IMO) when it comes to Fantasy stories. A totally enjoyable experience! I look forward to seeing what happens next with these characters.

After a couple of science fiction books, I’m back to fantasy with The Bow of Destiny (The Bow of Hart Saga Book 1) by P. H. Solomon. This one comes from an Amazon recommendation and I’m glad they recommended it!

Synopsis (from the author): Haunted by his past. Hunted in the present. Uncertain what is real.

This unique epic fantasy will keep you turning pages as Athson discovers his destiny is both inconvenient and unavoidable.

Athson has seen things that aren’t there and suffered fits since being tragically orphaned as a child at the hands of trolls and Corgren the mage who serves Magdronu the dragon.

When a strange will mentioning a mysterious bow comes into his possession, Athson’s not sure it’s real.

But the trolls that soon pursue him are all too real and dangerous. And they serve Corgren and his master, the hidden dragon, Magdronu.

Athson is drawn into a quest for the concealed Bow of Hart by the mystic Withling, Hastra.

But Athson isn’t always sure what’s real and who his enemies are.

With Corgren and Magdronu involved, Athson faces frequent danger, his grasp on reality, and the reasons behind his tragic past.

What I liked: P. H. Solomon built a cool world! I related to the characters easily and I enjoyed their adventures. The actions scenes entertained me and the hint of romance between Athson and Limbreth added a nice element to the story. Athson and Hastra’s uneasy relationship gave an extra bit of intrigue. The antagonists, Corgren and Magdronu, played their parts well and rounded out the story. The Bow of Destiny is a good fantasy book!

What I didn’t like: Despite all the good things listed above, there were a couple of things I didn’t like. First, Athson’s reluctance to accept is destiny was repetitive. Similarly, Limbreth’s struggle to tell Athson the truth was repetitive.

Overall impression: The Bow of Destiny (The Bow of Hart Saga Book 1) was a good book with lots to like. Good solid characters, good story, complex relationships, romance, and intrigue all combine for an enjoyable tale. I recommend this one to all fantasy readers!

My rating: 4 Stars

The Bow of Destiny by P.H. Solomon encompasses all things I love about traditional epic fantasy: a large cast of characters (including giants, elves, trolls, a noblewoman in disguise, and a lowly boy who has great potential), a quest, and loads of fighting scenes. The story surrounds our main character, Athson, whose family was murdered when he was a child, leaving him to be raised by elves (Athson is human). Since this tragic event, Athson has been dealing with hallucinations of his family members…and sometimes these hallucinations become premonitions. As we follow Athson, we soon learn that he is the target of an evil wizard, who may or may no know something about Athson that he already knows about himself, yet has never told another living soul. As the story progresses, we are introduced an extremely varied cast of characters and a villainous antagonist that makes your blood boil. I really enjoyed Hastra, the Withling. She seemed to know more than she was letting on, which often infuriates our main character. I also enjoyed the idea of Withlings in general, which is an original concept drawn up by the author. The writing was easy to read, not super flowery but not over simplified either. And I can’t forget to mention the dash of romance that was thrown in. It reminds of me our dear Rand Al’Thor from Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and how awkward he was around female love interests! The one critique I would give this books would just be the amount of page-time given to traveling. However, the same can be said of Tolkein’s The Hobbit. In epic fantasy, expect a lot of traveling around 🙂

The cover of this book is brilliant, and I enjoyed the descriptive writing. However, to my mind it could have done with more editing. I found the missing words, and occasional confusing POV, distracting; which was a shame as the basic story was good.

Okay, this isn’t quite paint-by-numbers epic fantasy, although it’s close, but there’s enough good stuff in here to separate it from the pack and earn it that award it won a couple of years ago (see bumf above). The plot revolves around the usual destiny deal, with a teenager being sent on a perilous mission to retrieve the titular Bow of Destiny. It’s all in here – a dragon (the big bad kahuna), underground dwarven cities, trolls and goblins, even a banshee for good measure (a pretty gnarly banshee at that).

The cast of characters has the doughty dwarves; the giant who lacks in vocabulary but makes up for it in kickass skills; the princess rebelling against her own fate of political marriage; the Withling (read mage/cleric type) who knows more than she lets on; and of course an elf (the MC was raised by elves). There’s a bad guy who’s kind of fun, as he’s terrified of the big bad kahuna.

The real pleasure in this story is the “hero.” Why? He’s not your traditional farmboy who picks up a sword and suddenly starts fighting like a freakin’ samurai. He’s a ranger, kind of like a cross between a marine and park ranger. He’s handy with a sword and a useful archer (aha!). So far, so very boring. But wait right there. He’s an orphan (of course) who suffers fits when memories of his mother’s death are triggered. He’s also an annoying little fart. The kind of teenager you want to throttle, but you can’t because there are laws against that kind of thing. He argues with everybody over everything, doesn’t trust the Withling (the brains of the operation) and places himself in danger just because he knows better than every one else. Just like a real teenager. Why is this enjoyable when he sounds like a turd? Because it’s different, plain and simple.

The story rattles along at a breakneck pace (no Tom Bombadil stopovers), their foes always seem to be a step ahead of the heroes, and it doesn’t tie up the story in a neat little “happy ending” bow (a bow of destiny?) but leaves on something of a downer, setting up the scene for the next book, which I will definitely be checking out. That was a ridiculously long comma-filled sentence, of which you will find none in this well-written book. I’d give it 4.5/5, but Goodreads won’t let me.

PS The author really likes the word “chivied.”

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